Health and Science
January 1, 1975
Health
Today is a good day to be born. Medical advances are making headlines
every day.
Infant mortality has dropped, and the death rate from communicable diseases
like measles and diphtheria is almost zero. The age of antibiotics has
virtually wiped out tuberculosis. Immunization programs have reduced polio
to an unpleasant memory for North Americans. Better sanitation and water
treatment have dramatically stemmed the many illnesses.
On the other hand, death rates from "lifestyle" diseases such
as heart attacks and strokes are very high, and death rates from cancer
are also still climbing. The declining quality of the environment plays
a part, as does the reluctance of some Canadians to stop smoking.
Doctors have begun to transplant organs, including the heart, kidney
and liver - something that would have seemed like nothing more than science
fiction in 1900.
If you can avoid accidents, decline to smoke and pass on that second
helping of sour cream, you have every hope of living to a ripe old age.
The astonishing pace of medical advances in the 20th century have made
many people just a little cocky. In a few years, the appearance of AIDS
, antibiotic- resistant bacteria will wipe the smirks off some faces.
Science
Call it future shock.
Many Canadians alive today have gone from primitive radios and the Model
T Ford to colour television, atomic weapons and humans journeying to the
moon. That's a lot of change in one lifetime. In fact, there have been
more technological advances in the past 75 years than in all the years
of human history before them. (So if your grandparents have trouble changing
the date on the VCR, cut them some slack, will you...)
Mainframe computers have been around for years, but the first personal
computer, the Altair 8800 , is just coming on line with a do-it-yourself
computer kit. Handy little gadgets called VCRs are almost ready to go
to market.
The skies are getting a little crowded. The Anik communications satellite
is in orbit above Earth, allowing for real-time television broadcasts
across the nation. It's the first stationary domestic communications satellite
in use by any nation. The 100-ton U.S. space station Skylab is keeping
it company.
Meanwhile, further out, space probes like Mariner 10 are taking pictures
of Venus, Mercury and other planets in the solar system.
Later this year, two university dropouts will found a company called
Micro-Soft (the hyphen is later dropped).
Something called the Arpanet has been set up by the American
military to maintain communications in the event of a Soviet nuclear strike.
Eventually, it will be opened to the public and re-named the Internet
.
| 
